Mentoring Women in the Biological Sciences: Is Informatics Leading the Pack?Author(s): SAMANTHA KATZSource: BioScience, Vol. 57, No. 7 (July/August 2007), p. 559Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological SciencesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1641/B570705 .

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Eye on Education

Across the landscape of informat-ics, particularly biological and eco-

logical informatics, are quite a fewwomen in leadership positions at im-portant organizations, such as the Na-tional Center for Ecological Analysisand Synthesis, the National Evolution-ary Synthesis Center, and the NationalEcological Observatory Network. Itwould appear that career opportunitiesfor women are burgeoning in the fieldof informatics.

Yet mathematics, science, and hightechnology—the building blocks ofinformatics—are not typically consid-ered to be women-dominated fields.Why, then, are a growing number ofwomen found in these decisionmakingpositions, which require not only supe-rior scientific skills but also highly ana-lytic modeling and computer scienceskills? The answer is twofold: mentor-ing and education.

On the education side of the equa-tion, the number of women pursuingbaccalaureates in mathematics, engi-neering, and science is rising steadily,but education alone is not translatinginto a greater number of women re-searchers in informatics. To achieve thatresult, says Marcie McClure, associateprofessor in the Department of Micro-biology at Montana State University–Bozeman, mentoring women who arestudying biological informatics iscritical.

According to McClure, “the reasonwhy there are women leading the cen-ters is that these positions are notstrictly research. By and large, basic re-search positions attract more men.”“The problem,” she adds, “is womendon’t know it [bioinformatics research]is an option.” If more women knew thattheir research interests were part of thefield called bioinformatics, morewomen would pursue bioinformaticsresearch as a career.

McClure, a bioinformatics researcherherself, believes that both bioinformat-ics and computational biology sufferfrom the dearth of women scientistsand engineers. To address this problem,McClure has started the “Women inBioinformatics” seminar series at Mon-tana State University. The series high-lights exceptional works of establishedand up-and-coming bioinformatics re-searchers and their experiences aswomen in a predominantly male field.The goal is to inspire the younger gen-erations of women scientists by provid-ing role models and mentors forwomen in science and engineering. Theidea, McClure says, is to “set up womenfor success.” She wants to create a placewhere women in bioinformatics candiscuss their research and provide men-toring and support.

McClure hopes to spur the interest of women and other groups that areunderrepresented in the sciences. Thewomen who give presentations at theseminars are chosen for their excellencein research and for the variety of educa-tional backgrounds and career pathsthey represent. To reach the widest au-dience possible, the seminars are Web-cast. A documentary film on women inbioinformatics has also been produced.

Deana Pennington, a research assis-tant professor at the University of NewMexico Long Term Ecological ResearchNetwork Office, is leading anotherweekly seminar, one that provides therigorous training necessary for infor-maticians. The seminars are part of aNational Science Foundation projectcalled “Advancing Cyberinfrastructure-based Science through Education,Training, and Mentoring of ScienceCommunities.” Pennington, the pri-mary investigator for this project, is anecoinformatics researcher who studiesthe application of information technol-ogy for integrated and synthetic analy-

sis of environmental and ecologic data.Through these seminars, which aretaught online at five institutions, stu-dents learn the skills for scaling up eco-logical studies from the local level toregional and global levels. As studiesmove from the local to the global scale,the research itself becomes increasinglyinterdisciplinary.

“Interdisciplinarity occurs in two aspects,” Pennington says, “the cross-sciences aspect and the cross betweenscience and technology required toconduct the science. In this arena,which absolutely requires abilities in‘conceptual multitasking’ to understanddifferent perspectives, communicate effectively, and cooperate rather thancompete, women seem to have someskills and attitudes that are very rele-vant. Opportunities to conduct basicresearch on interdisciplinary systemsare growing, and women should takeadvantage of these.”

The idea is to mentor these scientistsas they transition from disciplinary basic research into cross-disciplinary,technology-enhanced research so thatthey can develop the requisite skills forworking on interdisciplinary teamsand learn to integrate scientific inquirywith state-of-the-art computer soft-ware and hardware. “It is too soon tosay how the women in the group are responding relative to the men,” Pen-nington says. “But I will be analyzingthe responses to surveys based on gen-der, and it will be interesting to see ifthere are patterns that emerge.” Therole for women in bioinformatics maysoon become clearer.

Samantha Katz (e-mail: skatz@aibs.org)

is AIBS director of education and outreach.

doi:10.1641/B570705

Include this information when citing this material.

Mentoring Women in the Biological Sciences: Is Informatics Leading the Pack?

SAMANTHA KATZ

www.biosciencemag.org July/August 2007 / Vol. 57 No. 7 • BioScience 559

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